Ornamental upper sandal straps for the display of logos or text

ABSTRACT

An ornamental sandal, with cut outs of text, symbols, logos, or designs on the upper strap to allow penetration of the exposed cut out areas of the epidermal skin on the foot surface to the sun&#39;s ultraviolet rays to produce a temporary tanned tattoo-like effect on the skin after the sandals are removed from the feet. The user of the sandal has the option to choose the type of text, symbol, logo, or design when purchasing the sandal. Alternatively, the user may interchange upper straps to display preferred text, symbol, logo, or design of choice to suit the occasion, or have sandals custom made to the user&#39;s specifications.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to ornamental sandals. Moreparticularly, the invention relates to ornamental sandals capable ofdisplaying text, symbols, logos, or designs, on the epidermal layer ofthe skin on the foot surface after wear and exposure to the sun.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The ancient art of tattooing to decorate and display designs, pictures,text, and logos on various parts of the human body as a means ofpersonal expression has been practiced for centuries. However, tattooingone's body is a painful process that involves the use of needles made ofvarious metals to pierce through the epidermal and dermal layers of theskin and leaves a permanent impression and scar on the body surface thatcan only be removed by other equally painful procedures.

Over the years, other, less painful methods to mimic the tattooingeffect on the human skin have been developed. These include stencils ofvarious designs for application of skin staining dyes such as Mehndi asdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,998 and self-tanning compounds asdisclosed in Intl. Appl. No. PCT/GB2005/000271 used to produce atattooing effect on the skin. Another popular means of achieving thedesired tattooing effect on the human skin without the use of dyes andsun-tanning compounds is through the use of sun blocking masks as inU.S. Pat. No. 2,851,805, sun blocking tattoo stickers as in U.S. Pat.No. 5,811,108, skin templates as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,418and selective irradiation of skin with UV light according to a definedpattern such that the pattern becomes visible as a result of the skinbeing selectively and locally tanned as disclosed in International.Intl. Appl. No. PCT/AT2008/000178. The masks and tattoo stickers ofvarious designs when impressed upon the skin in the desired body areasand exposed to the sun's rays for a period of time, serve as sun blocksand when removed, produce temporary tattoo-like images on the skin. Inthe case of templates and stencils with a central opening and an outlinewith the desired image, placement on the skin and exposure to the sun'srays causes the skin within the central opening of the template orstencil to tan to the image of the template or stencil, with thesurrounding skin remaining un-tanned, creating a tattoo effect on theskin.

Although these methods when practiced create only a temporary tattooingeffect, the advantage of these methods besides avoiding the painful skinpiercing of conventional tattooing is that the wearer of the tattoos hasthe choice of switching between different designs, pictures, text, andlogos within a short period of time when these temporary tattoos wearoff and fade away.

Prior art relating to the display of temporary sun-tanned tattoo's onthe skin created by apparel and accessories has been limited thus far toclothing apparel and accessories such as head gear as disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 5,970,516 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,959. In particular, U.S. Pat.No. 5,656,959 discloses a head wear with a sizing band that functions asa stencil in one embodiment of the invention. This sizing band worn overthe forehead has a stenciled design that creates a tattoo-like patternon the forehead when exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Sandals with ornamental straps displaying various designs and colorsaccessorized with beads, tassels and other decorative accoutrement arewell known in the art. More recently, sandals displaying team logos onthe straps as well as on the insoles have become popular. U.S. Pat. No.D472,368 S discloses an ornamental design for a sandal with a team logodisplayed on the upper strap and the insole. U.S. Pat. Appl. No.2007256325 discloses a flip-flop sandal with the team logo inscribed onthe inner sole of the sandal. There is a need in the art for a sandalthat is capable of displaying a tattooed text, symbol, logo, or designof one's choosing on the surface of the foot for a period of time afterthe sandal is removed by the user.

The present invention fulfills the need for a sandal that creates atanned, tattoo effect of text, symbol, logo, or design on the footsurface when worn and the feet are exposed to the sun for a sufficientperiod of time as for instance when on the beach, by the pool,sunbathing, lounging, strolling and similar activities, and removedduring or after such activities.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a foot wear such as a sandal oropen toe shoe with upper straps that have cut outs of text, symbols,logos, or designs of various kinds which when worn by the user allowsthe ultraviolet rays of the sun to selectively penetrate the exposedskin under the cut outs on the strap producing a tanning effect on theexposed skin in the shape of the cut outs such that when the wearerremoves the sandals, the cut out text, symbols, logos, or designs remainon the skin surface akin to tattoo's for a period of time.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the user selects a sandalaccording to the present invention that has an upper strap with a cutout of a text, symbol, logo or design of the user's choosing in order todisplay a tattoo of that text, symbol, logo, or design after the user'sfeet is exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays for a period of time andthen removed from the user's feet.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the user may choose tobuy a set of upper straps having cut outs of different text, symbols,logos, or designs and interchangeably use them on the same sole of thesandal according to what befits the occasion or is to the user's liking.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the user may custom ordersandals with straps that have cut outs of a particular message, text,symbol, logo, or design of the user's choosing.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention willbecome obvious to one skilled in the art when viewed in conjunction withthe ensuing description of the drawings, detailed description of theinvention, and the claims that follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The ensuing drawings are for illustrative purposes only and should notbe construed to limit the scope of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates two perspective views of one embodiment of thepresent invention showing the upper straps of the sandals with placementof the cut outs of the text, design, logo, or symbols.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative design for the strap with theplacement of the cut outs of text, logo, symbol, or design.

FIG. 3 illustrates examples of the tanned tattooed text, logo, or sampledesign on the surface of the feet after the sandals are removed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide ornamental sandalswith cut out text, symbols, logos and other designs on the upper strapsthat permit the sun's ultraviolet rays to penetrate the epidermal skinon the surface of the feet of the user of the sandals creating atattoo-like tanned impression of the text, symbols, logos, or designs onthe feet after the sandals are removed.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown two perspective views of theornamental sandal 10 with strap 12 and sole 14. The placement of thecutouts 16 on the upper strap of the sandal is shown for illustrativepurposes. It is to be understood that a variety of texts, symbols,logos, or designs are envisioned for the cut outs 16 on the upper straps12 and fall within the scope of the invention. The user would have achoice of straps with several pre-cut texts, symbols, logos, or designswhich can interchangeably be used with the soles of the sandalsaccording to the liking of the user. Custom ordered cut outs of text,symbols, logos, or designs are also envisioned within the scope of theinvention. Materials to be used for the manufacture of the sandalsincluding the soles and upper straps include, but are not necessarilylimited to, Ethylene Vinyl acetate, Rubber, Cloth, Leather,Polyurethanes, Foam, Foamed rubber and Plastic. Specialized dies ormolds for the texts, logos, symbols and designs may be used oralternatively, water jet cutting may be used to cut, punch, or mold theupper strap material to produce the desired text, symbol, logo ordesign.

FIG. 2, shows an alternative upper strap 12 design for the ornamentalsandals with no toe inserts. The strap may have a cut out 16 of, either,text, symbol, logo, or design on their own or a combination of two typesof cut outs on the same strap.

FIG. 3, illustrates the tanned, tattoo effect 20 of the text, symbol,logo, or design created on the feet 18 surface after wearing andremoving the sandals of the present invention. The tanned effect 20 iscreated by the penetration of the skin epidermis by the sun's ultraviolet rays through the cut out 16 openings on the upper strap of thesandals.

The foregoing description of the present invention through the figuresand preferred embodiments should not be construed to limit the scope ofthe invention. It should be understood and obvious to one skilled in theart that the embodiments of the invention thus described may be furthermodified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims that follow.

1. A sandal with cut outs on the upper strap to permit the sun'sultraviolet rays to penetrate the skin epidermis on the foot surface tocreate a tanned temporary tattooed effect on the skin
 2. A sandal asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the cut outs on the upper strap are one ofeither, a text, symbol, logo, or design.
 3. A sandal as claimed in claim1, wherein the sandal may be an open-toe shoe.
 4. A sandal as claimed inclaim 1, wherein, the upper strap with the cut outs of said text,symbol, logo, or design may be preferentially interchanged with the soleof the said sandal.
 5. A sandal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upperstrap and sole of the sandal may be constructed of material includingbut not limited to, ethylene vinyl acetate, rubber, cloth, leather,polyurethanes, foam, foamed rubber, or plastic.
 6. A sandal as claimedin claim 1, wherein the cutouts are produced from specialized dies ormolds or by means of water jet cutting of the materials to produce thedesired texts, symbols, logos, or designs.
 7. A method of creatingtemporary tattoo's of text, symbols, logos, or designs on the epidermalskin of the foot surface, said method comprising the steps of: wearing asandal or open toe shoe with cutouts of text, symbols, logos, or designson the upper strap of said sandals or open toe shoes; exposing the feetto the sun's ultraviolet rays for a period of time so as to produce atan on the exposed skin surface within the cut outs; and removing thesandals or open toe shoes to reveal the tanned tattooed effect createdby the cut out text, symbols, logos, or designs on the surface skin ofthe user's feet.